Moneyblog

Winchester Cathedral, where Jane Austen was laid to rest 200 years ago this week, was the venue chosen for the unveiling of the new £10 bank note, which will feature a portrait of the English novelist. On a humid July day, tourists, pensioners, banknote geeks and a few noisy children packed the aisles. The atmosphere was expectant, as worshippers gathered to get a glimpse of 'Reverend' Carney at the pulpit. Smartphones were whipped out as soon as he started speaking. I travelled with my family as an off-duty journalist and was expecting the rather dry and technical explanations favoured by the Bank of England governor in the inflation report.

Would a cashless world be a better place, morally or fiscally? Matthew Taylor, in his relatively uncontroversial review of work practices and the ‘gig economy’ published on Tuesday, proposed that the £6 billion ‘cash in hand’ economy of payment for window cleaning, gardening, leaflet distributing and similar simple tasks should be regularised and brought into the tax net through the use of apps and other digital payment platforms. Would that really be a good thing? The first point to be made is that it’s probably going to happen anyway over the next decade — at least if we go the way of Sweden. There, cards and phones are almost universally used, even for the smallest transactions.

'Workers,' says Matthew Taylor, whose report into modern practices is published this week, 'should be treated as human beings, not cogs in a machine'. How very grand – and how fatuous. His entire report, commissioned by Theresa May in one of her first acts after becoming Prime Minister last July, is pointless, based on the false premise that there are millions of Brits beavering away in Victorian conditions for little money in insecure self-employment. Actually, we’re quite happy, Matthew. The vast majority of us are self-employed because we like it that way. We are not looking for a job, nor extra hours.

Investors are increasingly turning to shareholder activism to make their views heard, and their campaigns are working. As public trust in large businesses and politicians is at an all-time low, many argue that, in the right hands, activism is more effective than political intervention in curbing corporate excess and poor governance. According to research by FTI Consulting, shareholder campaigns in the UK nearly doubled from 28 to 51 last year as people increasingly used their ownership of companies to make a difference. Globally, campaigns have increased nearly five-fold since 2010 and now focus on a huge range of issues from boardroom pay to climate change.

Financial scams are big business in the UK. A report from Experian last year suggested that fraud could cost the UK economy as much as £193 billion a year – though these scams come in many shapes and sizes. Analysis from Which suggests there were around 264,000 reported cases of fraud last year. This, however, is likely to be just the tip of the iceberg. Barely a week goes by without reports of a new scam, whether it’s sudden demands to pay for the use of WhatsApp, suspicious emails supposedly from our bank, or fake ticket-selling websites. And, of course, these stories are accompanied by all sorts of advice on how to stay safe. However, the fact remains that the first line of defence against all financial scams is ourselves.

At some point in the last ten years, since the financial crisis (for that life-changing decade is an anniversary we are approaching), a change in perspective occurred: we went from seeing unsecured debt as something that is undesirable but occasionally necessary to something that is both unavoidable and normal. Credit cards and loans, once something for emergencies, are now a vital way to get through the month until payday for millions of people. Research from GoCompare found that 22 per cent of the British public relies on credit cards to live. The average consumer credit debt was £7,349 in April this year - £543.70 extra per household on a year before, according to the Money Charity.

There’s been a surge in fake villa rental websites setting up since January, with fraudsters targeting properties listed on the popular Villa Plus and Airbnb websites, according to this week's Sunday Times. The scam sites use stolen images of real villas listed on legitimate rental websites and list them under bogus names to entice holidaymakers to part with their cash by bank transfer – often thousands of pounds. Villa Plus told the newspaper that at least 10,000 of its images had been stolen by scammers and pointed to paradisevillaholidays.com as one alleged fraudulent website.

If asked, who would you say are the type of people most vulnerable to identity theft? The young and transient, whose credit cards find their way to the doormats of long-left flat shares? The elderly and vulnerable, who unwittingly reveal personal information to fraudsters? How about the savvy and entrepreneurial? A new report by Cifas reveals that around 20 per cent of identity fraud victims are company directors, even though they make up less than 9 per cent of the UK’s population. Cifas, a not-for-profit company which works to protect organisations and individuals from financial crime, says this makes company directors one of the most at-risk groups for identity fraud crimes.

Let’s not beat around the mulberry bush. Nationwide Building Society is a force for good in the murky world of personal finance. It is more consumer-centric than its banking rivals and believes in delivering customer service par excellence. Virtues sadly lacking across swathes of the financial world. It has even opened a new branch this year – Glastonbury in Somerset  – an unlikely but welcome step given most banks are retreating from the High Street at a great gallop. Also, unlike rivals – including the State-owned Royal Bank of Scotland - it does not believe that in order to run an efficient financial institution you have to outsource key parts of your business to distant parts of the globe.

The Co-operative Bank, an ethical lender based in Manchester, has extraordinarily loyal customers. Why, you might wonder, is having loyal customers so extraordinary? Well, in the case of Co-op Bank, you could hardly blame them if they took their accounts elsewhere. The fact so many have stayed put, despite the bank’s spectacular fall from grace, might well have something to do with the paucity of other options on offer. There’s a screaming need for an ethical alternative to the bonus-hungry greed of the mainstream banks, who all too often treat their customers with contempt. Before it ran into the rocks, it seemed as though the Co-op Bank fitted the bill. But then it made the fateful decision in 2009 to embark on a disastrous takeover of the Britannia Building Society.

This week’s Best Buys, provided by Moneyfacts, are Two-Year Fixed Rate Bonds.

Once upon a time, there lived a very bored (but exceptionally diligent) paralegal. Everyday she would head to the office and stare at the same Excel spreadsheet. It contained a litany of things that really don’t belong in an excel spreadsheet – friends and family members, photographs, old records, engagement rings, a collection of saucy novels, a Constable painting, and boxes filled with the detritus of faded memories – theatre tickets, thank-you cards and wedding invitations.

It’s obvious to see how far cash savings have fallen over the years and how increasingly difficult it is to avoid inflation eroding your nest egg. In stark contrast are the striking potential returns that can result from investing in stocks and shares. But it’s worth remembering that fund values can fall as well as rise – so if the market drops, it's bad news for your original investment. Those who are not prepared to gamble their cash may have to think differently. Cautious savers putting money aside may still prefer to invest in cash to get a simple return of interest as a reward for investing with that provider. These savings can make it a lot more straightforward to plan ahead - if you have something specific in mind.

There’s never been a better time to borrow money. Mortgages pegged at 1.29 per cent, 2.7 per cent personal loans, and 29-month interest free balance transfer cards are no longer the stuff of our credit-filled dreams. But the cost of short-term loans has remained stubbornly high. We’re in the midst of a cheap credit bonanza, and yet the poorest and most marginalised continue to pay the most – a challenge that the industry seems unable to tackle. Often dubbed alternative or fringe lending, in 21st century Britain the fringe has become really pretty big. A 2016 Money Advice Service study found that more than 16 million people had less than £100 in savings. In my region, the North East of England, 50.7 per cent of adults have less than £100 in savings.